British Home Office reminds men that 'no means no'—even if she's wearing her hot Do Not Enter panties.

(click poster) Rape awareness poster hanging in public men's rooms in the Merry Olde UK. Tipster Fintan just spotted one in a bathroom in Nottingham. The campaign apparently started back in 2007 when the ad appeared in English lad mags like Nuts. Call me confused, but showing a half-naked woman in a rape awareness ad being viewed by plastered horny pissing men is just bloody stupid, right? Previously in Rape:
• Statutory rape D-Cupped right into our faces.
• Italian rape helpline poster features naked crucified woman.
• And, the 1960s Broomsticks slacks Gang-Rape Ad Series™.

copyranter on ANIMAL NY: Alcoholics Anonymous Brazil.

Bloody Fetus Mary.

(click ad) It's time for some more social PSA ShockVertising! "Mama Drinks Baby Drinks." The copy translates: "Drinking alcohol in pregnancy and in nursing can damage the physical and mental development of your infant." The advertiser is Unita Locale Socio Sanitaria N. 9 (Local Health Unit #9), and the poster will appear on buses, billboards and in the women's lavatories of bars, restaurants and nightclubs in the region of Veneto, according to the Daily Telegraph. Apparently, 65% of Italian women drink during pregnancy. Jaysus. Here's the campaign website. Lindsay Lohan, take heed! Thanks to Change Marketing for the full ad scan.Previously: brutal Indian female foeticide ad.

bp's now-dead alternative energy logo was even more colorful than an oil slick.

(click image) It's as dead as bp's alternative energy program, right Tony Hayward? Oh, there's still a web-page, but no more cutsey name—it used to be a trademarked fake-word, alternativenergy™, with a shared "e"—and no more cutesy-wootsey logo. Luckily, I still have the image, scanned from a magazine print ad from 2006. The cutesy little buzzing bee was the best. Their ironic sunflower logo is of course being met with hateful gazes these days. Greenpeace UK is even holding a contest to redesign it so that it better reflects the company's true brand. related: Shell ad with smoke stacks emitting flowers.

Crotch copy will always achieve high readership scores.

(click ads, via osocio) We've seen CrotchVertising in the name of safe sex twicebefore (both slightly nsfw). Tom Ford is also a fan. These, from a campaign targeting teens via the Quebec Ministry of Health, translate roughly too: "With herpes/chlamydia, often there is nothing to see." Then, "the condom, 100% on" or something. This is the sign-off website. Insecure young French-Canadian men must just love that "nothing to see" line. I don't believe these are scratch & sniff. Sorry for the blurry scans.Previously: safe sex print ads and videos.

copyranter on ANIMAL NY: NYC anti-smoking spot.

God loses battle of most annoying UK ads of 2009.

(click posters) Britain's priggish Advertising Standards Authority just released their top ten most complained about ads of last year. Number 1: The Christian's Party's "There Definitely Is A God" bus poster, which was a direct response to the British Humanist Association's poster above right—which came in at #6 on the list. The pro-God ad received 1,204 complaints out of a total of 28,978, which was a 9% increase over the previous year's total. The Brits love to nag.Previously in religious marketing:• the Pope's cologne.• "I hate church"—Satan.• a critique of the Jehovah Witnesses' marketing materials.• "Obama had one, McCain had two, let me be your crazy reverend!"

The Spider-Women of Turkey.

(click ads, via) "Vog socks on the web now" reads the translated headline from these ads by the Istanbul office of TBWA. Looking at these visuals and the website, it looks like "stockings" got lost in translation. No matter, it's just the latest case of human body Photoshop abuse, though weirdly, for me, kind of an appealing one (I like legs). Update: Yes indeed—where are the models' two back feet? Previously, the digitally-carved body parts have been faces and hands.

Today's mildly clever-but-pointless grab at ad awards.

(click image) For eating human flesh dumplings. The instructions read: 1. Tuck under thumb and hold tightly. 2. Write the Chinese government to help end torture. 3. Don’t let human rights violations by the Chinese government give China a bad name. 4. Take further action at amnesty.org/china. Created by creatives at Saatchi & Saatchi NY for Amnesty International. China's a frequent ad target of AI's. The url is a phony, so this is probably spec work that the agency will try to sell to AI, but will enter into awards shows either way.
Previous pointless Amnesty International ad stunts:
• Public restroom Blood Soap.
• the high-tech wife-beating bus poster.
• woman stuffed in clear suitcase in the name of human trafficking.

copyranter on ANIMAL NY: PETA UK.

Hyundai: you're trying too hard.

(click images, via) Look at these fucking hideous World Cup promo creations. Talk about your forced design elements. The nets look ridiculous, the side mirrors look idiotic, and the seats look terrible. I do like the wheels. Hyundai has been the official auto of FIFA since 2000. From the press note:

Hyundai has commissioned two very special i10s to be built. Both the i10s are covered in artificial turf and the center circle on the roof is a home to a 1.5 meter tall foot ball. On the other, the vehicle features goal post on the bonnet of the car that driver peers through. Additionally, the other exterior features include the soccer ball wheels and the football shoe mirrors.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Osama bin Plastic.

(click image, via) If you continue using plastic bags, the terrorists will have won. On behalf of Elf, a local NGO, JWT in New Delhi constructed this plastic statue of the "world's most dangerous and irremovable man." They then set him up in various high foot-traffic areas of the Indian city. JWT NYC should import him here and place him around Manhattan and D.C., specifically the Pentagon. You know all those generals waste huge amounts of takeout plastic at lunchtime. The big guy, who's becoming quite the ad meme, never looked better.Previous plastic pollution ads/stunts:• Anti-plastic spot will depress the hell out of you.• Huge six-pack rings flung over statues in Vancouver.• Drinking bottled water is like giving a car a blow job.

Sexist Ad of the Week: Prostate Cancer Foundation.

(via osocio) "Why can't men express themselves more like women." It's a knitting circle, featuring former NFL great (and co-star of the 1972 classic "The Thing With Two Heads") Rosey Grier and retired MLB pitcher Vida Blue (two he-men with girlie names!) Ahh, so cute, and equally insulting to both men and women. Bravo, PCF. Previous Sexist Ads of the Week.

copyranter on ANIMAL NY: Durex.

Tampon DrainVertising.

(click image,via) To market Nampak's Lifestyle stretch-fit sanitary pad, a South African ad agency created this basin decal, designed to fit neatly over the drainage hole. "The creative resembles the actual product, whilst drawing attention to its unique selling points—its stretch fit and super absorbent core—at the same time," said the agency, Johannesburg's TLC Marketing.Even cuter if you have a cut on your hands, right ladies? Previously in: questionable public bathroom advertising. Previously in: Tampon Advertising.

copyranter on ANIMAL NY: Nike Football.

(click ads, via) "Let the sea help you breathe." Ads by Tel Aviv agency BBR Saatchi & Saatchi for Otrivin sea water nasal spray. It's the ol' literal visual approach. In rare cases, it works. Most of the time, it doesn't. These? Are just fucking scary. As, or more, scary then these and these instances of Scary Photoshop.

(NSFW) Use your mouse to play with Edyta's "Magic Boobs"

According to Warsaw ad agency Change Integrated, the only way to get men interested in breast cancer awareness is to treat them like a child. A horny child. To do this, they recently replaced one of the models in the adult section of a popular Polish website with "Edyta." The agency claims Edyta "trained" almost 175,000 men in a single week on how to examine their partner's boobies, and that these wank sessions were equivalent to "offline" breast-check training courses. Now that's funny. Go here (nsfw, obvs.) if you want to try it/jerk off.Previously in breast cancer awareness ads/promos:• YEAH TITS!! oh.• Save the bouncing DD bOObs.• Blobs of boob flesh attack Auckland.• Bald booby heads promote mammogram testing.

Guerrilla Advertising!

(click image, via) OK, it's actually for Orangutans. But whatever! Let us just applaud the creative minds at Y&R Jakarta who turned those ugly abandoned monorail trusses (L) into ambient advertising for the Friends of the National Parks Foundation in Indonesia. May you ad peoples win lots of awards, and maybe actually help save an Orangutan or three.Previously in: Guerrilla and/or Ambient Advertising.

Whoa, wait: where did those statistics come from?

(click ads, via) Ads for the South African National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence warning woman about drinking during pregnancy. (L) "50% of children born with foetal alcohol syndrome will grow up to engage in risky sexual behaviour." (R) "60% of children born with foetal alcohol syndrome will grow up to engage in criminal activity."Those random numbers feel a bit high, yes? Nothing in the ads or on the website backs them up. Ad agencies wouldn't just make up stats, would they? Also: what exactly is "risky sexual behaviour?" The art direction and photography are nice, though. Previously in: anti-alcohol advertising.

Drinking Stoli will take 30 years off your face.

(click ad, via) Photoshop Phacial Abuse of the Week! Man-oh-man, has the "chick magnet" Hef's mug been digitally steam-cleaned or what? Shit, I've downed my share of Russian vodka over the years. Maybe I need to inject it into my forehead? And yes, I would have a drink with me because I don't talk too much, which makes for the perfect drinking buddy.Previous celebs retouched to a fare-thee-well:• Mary Hart.• Ashley Judd.related: Evangeline Lilly in the most fucked up celebrity endorsement print ad I've ever seen.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

magazines use magazines to sell magazines in magazines.

(click ad) What a cute little ad fairy tale from America's magazine publishers. Pointed. But also, dull! If you subscribe to a popular magazine or two (I don't. I get them for free at work.), you may have seen this new ad taking on the "online world." It continues the 2010 "The power of print" campaign, which kicked off with this Michael Phelps execution. Would like to see ad agency Y&R fit Geezer Jock or Coitus into the next one. Magazines—forever terrible at advertising themselves. Here's some more evidence. (Scanned from this week's Sports Illustrated, sorry for the bleed through. Magazines use such cheap-ass paper these days.)

copyranter on ANIMAL NY: Amnesty International.

Former president George W. Bush used to sell Jockey "no panty line" underwear in India.

(click ad, via) Follow the borrowed interest logic thread, if you can: First, the Iraqi shoe thrower (who has already been exploited to promote ebay in Belgium and sell laundry detergent in Colombia) is referenced, though this time there are several shoes, including a pump. Second, the Bush at the podium is apparently a stunt double, as the real W sits comfortably backstage, protected by his bodyguards, reading a (children's?) book. Now, the copy line: "No one needs to know"—about the faux Bush, and that you're wearing underwear. Brilliant sell. Agency: Mudra in Bangalore.Previously W references in ads:• Philips unplugs W.• Bush with a bindi for Humo magazine.• American Psycho billboard in New Zealand.• W appears alongside bin Laden in Samsung campaign.